I’m Wat I’m!!!

STAR TO STATESMAN? Telugu superstar Chiranjeevi formed his political party in August.

Tamil superstar Rajinikanth must enter politics, and he should decide about it now. That message comes from Telugu superstar Chiranjeevi, who formed his own political party this year.

“I think he (Rajinikanth) should have joined politics. I think he should have come (into politics). He has got some much charisma—people expect him,” said Chiranjeevi in an interview.

Asked whether he had discussed the issue with Rajinikanth, he said: “Yes, oh yes! Several times—we discussed it. We discussed it many times. He said when I enter 60 years it would be the right time.”

Chiranjeevi wanted the Tamil actor to decide about joining politics now. “Yes. You are right—something like that,” he said when asked if Rajinikanth should make a decision now.

Rajinikanth has refused to accept his fans’ plea to enter politics at least thrice since 1996. Last month, his fans formed a ‘political party’ but he scolded them and warned no one can “force” him to enter politics.

He also warned of legal action against people using his name for political gains.

“While no one can stop me from entering the political arena, nobody can force me to do so as well. Legal action will be initiated against those who use my name for political ends,” the actor said on October in a statement to media organisations.

Chiranjeevi, who for years had been under similar fan pressure, jumped into politics when he formed the Prajarajyam party in Tirupati on August 26.

Chiranjeevi has promised that his party will work for the poor and the landless but is yet to sketch out a clear political ideology.

HISTORY MADE: Democrat Barack Obama has been elected president of the United States.

Democrat Barack Obama wrote his name indelibly into the pages of American history on Wednesday, engineering a social and political upheaval to become the country’s first black president-elect in a runaway victory over Republican John McCain.

The 72-year-old Arizona senator quickly called his opponent to concede defeat and congratulate his rival in the longest and most costly presidential campaign in American history.

The 47-year-old Illinois senator, son of a white mother from Kansas and an African father from Kenya, mined a deep vein of national discontent, promising Americans hope and change throughout a nearly flawless 21-month campaign for the White House.

Obama stepped through a door opened 145 years ago when Abraham Lincoln, a fellow Illinois politician, issued the Emancipation Proclamation that freed African-Americans from enslavement in the rebellious South in the midst of a wrenching civil war.

The powerful orator lays claim to the White House on Jan. 20, only 43 years after the country enacted a law that banned the disenfranchisement of blacks in many Southern states where poll taxes and literacy tests were common at the time.

With victories in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and other battleground states, Obama built a commanding lead over McCain after surging in the polls in the midst of a national financial crisis. He and his fellow Democrats sought to link McCain to the unpopular George W. Bush.

Obama soared into the national spotlight with his electrifying speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, when he was making his first run for the Senate and polishing his message of unity in a country that was mired in partisan anger.

Democrats also were expanding their majorities in both chambers of Congress.